(Matt Soffer)
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Over 1000 people logged in for Bess Soffer’s Zoom funeral. Her children knew she was beloved, but even they were surprised by the turnout.
“I knew she was a good friend, but I didn’t know that depth of friendship that she had with so many people all over the country. Everyone felt important when they were around her,” said her son, Matt Soffer, senior rabbi at the Judea Reform Congregation in Durham, North Carolina.
Many people joined from her New Jersey community. But Matt said he spotted people who live 15 minutes away from him in North Carolina who were also shedding tears. He hadn’t even known that his mother knew them.
DURHAM, N.C. (WTVD) The number of Americans killed by COVID-19 surpassed 500,000, according to Johns Hopkins University, a tragic figure far surpassing the toll of any other nation in the world.
Logically, 500,000 is only slightly more than the population of the City of Raleigh (483,579); it s roughly equal to 25 sellout crowds at PNC Arena (capacity 19,722); the U.S. death toll is now approximately 168 times the total lives lost on Sept. 11, and now stands at approximately 3/4 of the total number of deaths that were recorded in the U.S. during the 1918 influenza pandemic.
Logically, the updated death toll means the virus has killed one in every 656 Americans. Emotionally, however, Americans may not ever understand the weight of that number.